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 Overview
World Bank Program
| | | | Quick Facts | | Figures show the most recent available data and the year. | | | Source: World Development Indicators 2006 |
Overview Vietnam has succeeded in translating economic growth into poverty reduction in recent years. Despite low per capita GDP the country enjoys infant mortality rates, life expectancy, and adult literacy levels at par with richer countries like China and Thailand. However, over one third of the population is poor or near-poor, and inequality and marginalization of certain vulnerable groups have increased.  During the past decade, Vietnam has accomplished great progress in the field of education. The primary net enrollment rate has increased from 86 percent in 1990 to 91 percent in 2003 and the dropout rate has declined from 12 percent to about 3 percent.
Vietnam has also significantly developed lower secondary education opportunities and expanded access to more students. The transition rate from primary to lower secondary has increased from 78 percent to 88 percent and a majority of young Vietnamese have gained access to nine years of basic education. The higher education system in Vietnam has also expanded rapidly over the past ten years. The gross enrollment rate has gone from 2 percent in 1992 to approximiately 13 percent in 2004. These accomplishments place Vietnam at the forefront of educational development among countries with similar per capita income. However, significant challenges in educational access and quality still remain. Barriers to education access are concentrated in specific regions in Vietnam, where schooling conditions are harder due to lack of adequate human resources, different languages, high poverty rates, lack of adequate financial resources and the existence of smaller remote communities that tend to make education services more costly to deliver. An estimated 20 percent of ethnic minority children have no access to primary education. Further, quality in many education cycles remains low and varies by region. In regards to higher education, the system is undergoing significant reforms and one of its major challenges is to meet the increasing demand for higher education and improve its quality. Back to top World Bank Program The World Bank is assisting the educational system in Vietnam in the following areas: Basic Education - Primary Education for Disadvantaged Children Project. Improving the provision of basic education to the most remote and marginalized children and toward improvements in teaching quality throughout the system.
- Education for All Implementation Program. Continuation of support to basic education that addresses both poverty alleviation, through expanded and improved basic social services, and the qualitative issues through the modernization of teaching and learning, the implementation of minimum quality standards and assessment of student learning performance.
- Helping build local capacity to improve the collection of information on children with disabilities. Addressing the needs of children with disabilties is key to achieving the Millenium Development Goal of Education for All.
Back to top Higher Education Back to top June 2007 |
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